where fresh green boughs don't exist. . .

. . . I did what I could to bring the appearance of them to our apartment. 

After looking at three different stores, I found bags of small pinecones (score!) and a long strip of garland. With that, some burlap (that Linda sent in a package earlier this year - she knows me so well!),  a few decorations from last year, and a little creativity, our place is full of Christmas cheer :)

A second appearance from Donald Trunk. Sporting his festive side. 

favorite of my creations. taking the place of an angklung for a while

how can you not smile at this guy?!

And last but not least. . . Chris' addition to the Christmas cheer.

If you know Chris, you've probably seen these friendly guys before!

. . . and snowflakes that I made during grade 1 art time :)

The "E-Girls"

This season, I got the chance to coach this

lovely bunch of grade 5 and 6 girls with Sarah. 

{Sarah and I met playing flag football at Corban,

and have gotten to know each other better since being here}

headed to their first game!

After practice one day, with cookies from coach Sarah and I

On the bus headed to their first tournament.

I wish I had a video from our first day of practice. With the exception of two girls, none of them had ever played basketball before. . . it wasn't pretty. We had to start with the very basics: how to dribble, what traveling was, what offense and defense meant, etc. But by the end of the season, these girls could make their lay-ins (this was big!), run plays, and we got a win! 

It's hard to have organized sports seasons in Indonesia, because half the schools here run Jan - Dec, so their school years look different. Then, half the schools that do match with ours, don't have girls this age that want to play. We only got to play four games, which is a bummer because they were just starting to peak when the season ended. 

After their first tournament game.

On Thursday, we had our end of the year team party. I finally got in the school's indoor pool. Last year it wasn't heated, so that was pretty much a no! These pictures are from a different day. . . sadly, I forgot to bring my camera for our party! But I stole this picture from Sarah!

We brought a beach ball, and had a blast splashing around. The party finished off with the classic team awards. After coming up with about eight awards, Sarah and I had to start getting creative. We managed to award each girl a certificate for something different! :) And don't forget the food part. . .we had lots of that too! 

As much as I enjoyed coaching the girls this season, even two days a week sometimes felt like a big commitment some days after working! I give props to the coaches who coach every day of the week. I sorta wasn't looking forward to another coaching season after Christmas. BUT, I'm excited because I found out most of my basketball girls are joining soccer next season, so they'll make it worth the time! :)

Oh, and I'm sure we'll be the "E-Girls" again. They said, "the boys are the Eagles, we want to be the E-girls instead!" so there you have it. 

"E-Girls"

G809

I meant to put up these pictures a looong time ago, and just found them in my draft blog posts. I don't really feel like writing much to go along with them, but if you're interested in seeing what our apartment looks like, here's a peek. I always struggle to get shots with good lighting in our place because there is a huge window on one side, which makes everything else look dark in pictures. . . 

Anyways, here's our place - The Empire, Unit G809

As you walk in the door (again, sorry about that awful lighting!)

Overexposed, to show the room

Underexposed, so you can see our AMAZING view!)

Though you can't tell from this, there are two soccer goals on that field. I love looking out the window and watching kids play. And even a little bit of blue sky that day!

Our good friend, Donald Trunk

As you can probably tell by now, whoever decorated/wallpapered this place had some eclectic style! yikes!

This little Bajaj driver print was a birthday gift from my friend Madi. I'd been eyeing it since the beginning of the year :)

No, our oven still doesn't fit in the kitchen well, but still thankful we have one!

The turnaround view from the window side. Bedroom on the right, guest bedroom, bathroom, and laundry on the left.

Again, not how I would have decorated the place (goldfish clock!?), but I like the bar connected to the kitchen!

I didn't add pictures of the bedrooms or kitchen. The bedrooms are the blandest part of the place. Nothing too colorful or exciting. And maybe I'll get pictures of the kitchen sometime. . . when there aren't dishes in the sink :)

Stay tuned for some Christmassy apartment pictures soon!

P.S. 10 points to whoever noticed the two Spiderman toys that made appearances in several pictures. I'm a good wife, and somehow let them remain as part of the decor ;)

Thanksgiving(s)

I say Thanksgiving(s) because we definitely got our fair share of turkey and have hearts full of many things to be thankful for! 

{Thanksgiving #1}

Our wonderful administrative staff did such a good job trying to give all of us American's an "authentic" Thanksgiving meal like we would be used to. We had an all staff lunch that included turkey, mashed potatoes (indo version), green beans, rolls, and sweet potatoes (attempted :), pumpkin soup (delicious!) and apple pie. We had the lunch on Wednesday because it's our short teaching day. Then we spent the rest of the day decorating our halls for Christmas. Great day all around! 

{Thanksgiving #2}

On Thursday, myself and the other grade 1 and 2 teachers organized a Thanksgiving lunch for our students. Our class moms and other parents were SO helpful in preparing all of the food! They even decorated! In the pictures below, you can see the "table" we set up for the kids, with their thankful placemats and letters written to their parents saying why they are thankful for them. Some good reading right there!

+

=

{Happy and Thankful (for the most part) kids!}

{Thanksgiving #3}

Just yesterday, we had a Corban Thanksgiving. A couple from Corban (Holly and Aaron Schilperoort) with two kids came here this year, and are teaching at one of the other campuses. They volunteered to host a Thanksgiving get together for all of us Corbanites. This was the truest to all of our typical Thanksgivings. We all brought our traditional dishes, and Holly took on the turkey. It was such a great time of fellowship -- laughter, baby snuggles (with their 3 month old!), football for the boys, and a little bit of healthy venting about Indonesian difficulties ;) TIJ was uttered a time or two. . .

With Holly's adorable kiddos 

We have SO much to be thankful for! I can't say this enough, nor is one day a year sufficient to think about the many ways we've been blessed. My prayer is that we are in a constant state of thanks. 

To list a few things. . .

being surrounded by the body of Christ anywhere we go

our families that love and pray for us

getting to be a part of so many kids' lives through our jobs

opportunities to travel and see the world together

memories of fun times with our families

technology that allows us to talk with friends/family so far away

our apartment/location

our friends in Indo - couldn't do it without them

challenges that have caused us to grow in so many ways

all the little things. . . count them daily!

my wonderful hubby

ability to stream football games on the internet

my workout buddies

learning to see the world from new perspectives

restful weekends

Thanksgiving leftovers

and pumpkin pie :)

Vietnam Continued {Ho Chi Minh City}

As promised, here's the second half of our trip. Sorry it's taken me awhile to get it posted - we've been busy around here!

Thursday

- Another early morning breakfast at the hotel, and then off on another tour bus to visit the Cu Chi tunnels. We learned all about the intense underground tunnel system (dug by hand) that the Viet Cong built during the war. Check out Chris' facebook for the video of him going down into this hole!

smiling in the pitch black, waiting for the flash to light up our faces.

They built three levels of these tunnels. The first level was 2-3 meters under ground, while the third level was up to 10 meters under ground! Talk about claustrophobia! Chris and I did manage to crawl through 100 meters of tunnels though (authentic tunnels, just widened a bit for tourists). I did fine as long as I didn't think about being stuck, or the fact that I was 9 feet under! We had sore quads the next day from squatting so low!

- We got back to Ho Chi Minh at 2:30 and were dropped straight off at the War Remnants Museum and were there until it closed at 5:00. This was probably the hardest part of the trip because it was full of pictures from the war, and some serious propaganda. It was obviously pro-Vietnam, but was really good for Chris, as a history teacher (someday, hopefully), to gain exposure from a different angle, and we both came away so much more knowledgeable.

Huey

- We were SO exhausted by 5:00, and hadn't eaten since breakfast at 7:30. We decided that it would be our first early night and that we'd be in bed by 8:00 after eating dinner. BUT, Chris had met a Canadian guy at his IB conference (last month) who has been living in Ho Chi Minh for seven years and offered to show us around the city. He emailed us that day while we were gone, saying that night was the only time that would work for him. So, off we went again! (after finding a Burger King :) you can only eat so much pho!) This was another highlight of our trip. He took us around to all the spots that Vietnam doesn't highlight for tourists, because some of the things/places are things they'd rather forget. I rode on the back of the guys' bike, and we hired a Vietnamese guy for 2 hours to drive Chris around. Since it was at night, we couldn't get any good pictures, but we knew where the spots were so we could go back the next day. It was so fun zooming around the city at night on motorbikes. And this city is truly the motorbike capitol of the world, with road rules just slightly better than Jakarta (my driver went into traffic upstream to find a specific place, and Chris's guy had to hop curbs to follow us).

Friday

- The first day we got to sleep in on this trip. We were happily surprised to see another family from our school when we made it down to the continental breakfast! They had been staying in a different part of Vietnam, and stayed just one night at this place because they flew out a few hours later. We enjoyed chatting about our travels over breakfast, and said our "see ya laters" as we left. About 30 minutes later, as Chris and I were packing up to check out of the hotel and head out for our last day in Ho Chi Minh, Trent knocked on our door, and offered to lend us the equivalent of $100 in Vietnamese Dong (VND) since it was their last day there. The Lord was really looking out for us. Due to our initial struggles with converting money, we had the equivalent of $25 left and knew we could only eat pho for meals, and do nothing else that day that cost money, or we wouldn't have enough to make it back to the airport by taxi. Trent came in CLUTCH and allowed us to live it up that last day without fearing that we wouldn't make it home. Thank you Felstrom family!

- Chris and I spent the morning revisiting the sites we were shown the night before so we could see them in daylight. First, we wanted to get this shot:

It's where the last American helicopter took off in 1975 from a CIA apartment building in Siagon, NOT the US Embassy that was originally reported in the news/magazines (though the photographer tried repeatedly to correct it).

-Then we got drinks (aka $8 milkshakes. we had to!) at the legendary Siagon Siagon Bar in the Caravelle Hotel. It's located in the city's center and was the highest viewpoint during the war, where journalists would stay, write, and observe airstrikes across the river.

Hotel Continental Siagon - Where Graham Greene was staying while he worked on his controversial novel, The Quiet American 

- We went to the Reunification Palace. It's where the tanks bust through the gates, and Viet Cong rushed up the steps and planted their flag on top of the presidential palace, symbolizing the fall of Siagon and the unification of Vietnam.

Now

Then 

- And probably the most memorable part of our time in Ho Chi Minh, was going to this little noodle shop (shown to us by Chris' IB conference friend).

The manager (who died in 2006) warmly served American soldiers "pho binh" (which translates to "peace soup" ironic!?) during the war, while housing the secret members of the Viet Cong in a meeting room just upstairs. This is where the Tet Offensive, and many other attacks carried out against the US and South Vietnamese personnel, were planned and executed from. This sweet little man in our picture is the owner now, and served us our pho binh (the best we had in Vietnam!). Understanding that we were probably there for more than just soup, he brought us an old laminated news article, that told the history of the place -- exactly what we were interested in.

After we finished our soup, he asked us if we wanted to go upstairs. . . to the very room where it all took place. We were more than eager to go! We walked back through the kitchen, and up several flights of stairs. Through minimal English, and a very thick accent, he told us about the owner of the shop, the members of the Viet Cong who met there, and instructed us to sit in the chairs around the table to he could get a picture (he had us hold the tea cups). You could tell he was proud of what happened there, and eager to share the history with us, but in a very gentle way. Though he didn't tell us, and we couldn't really ask him, he must have been involved, given his age and the fact that he's the current owner.

Stairway leading up.

He made sure we got the full experience. . . tea cups and all.

Photo hanging in the room of a documented meeting. The only thing that's changed since then is the tile flooring. 

From this little soup shop, we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and get to the airport. What a trip this was! I wouldn't file it under the vacation category (except for our day on the boat) because we were always on the go, but we had an incredible time and learned so much. I feel embarrassed, how little I actually knew about the Vietnam war before going. Thankful to God for the chance to see places of the world like this. Trying not to take any of it for granted!